


Life Goes On

by Westend21



Series: Steve and Dustin, a magical friendship. [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Good Babysitter Steve Harrington, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Parental Steve Harrington
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-30 21:02:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12661350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Westend21/pseuds/Westend21
Summary: When Dustin's mom dies, he doesn't know what to do. He finds himself drifting. With the help of his friends can he come back?





	Life Goes On

 

The ringing of the phone woke him up. Dustin had sat up slowly, the room bathed in darkness. He looked around and frowned. Why wasn’t his mom home? She had said she would be home from her friend’s party around ten. He had sat up waiting for her and he must have fell asleep. He looked at the clock. It was past midnight. He sighed, and walked over to the phone.

“Hello?” He answered the phone. He assumed it was him mom telling him not to worry about her and that she was coming home soon.

“Is this Dustin Henderson?”

“Yes…” he said slowly. He didn’t recognize the voice. He didn’t get phone calls and not late at night. Lucas sometimes radioed him late at night.

“This is Dr. Veller. I’m sorry but your mom’s been in an accident.”

“What! What happened? Is she ok?” Dustin panicked. He felt his eyes brim with tears.

“We can talk in person when you get here. Do you have a way to get here? Or do we need to send a car?” The man asked. Dustin tried to stop his erratic breathing.

“Um y-yeah. I’m leaving right now.” He said. His bike would get him there in ten minutes maximum.

“Ok we’ll talk soon.” The man said.

“Ok. Bye.” He hung up with shaky hands.

Dustin had never road his bike faster anywhere faster in his entire life.

 

 

The doctor was talking to him. He had been for at least thirty minutes. He was talking about the accident. How they had found her and she had passed before she made it to the hospital. He was talking about what was going to happen to him after this. And Dustin didn’t want to hear any of it.  He stared at the shape of his mother’s body underneath the sheet.

“Can I be alone with her for a minute?” Dustin’s voice was barely above a whisper, not once looking away from his mom. The Doctor halted abruptly looking at the young boy sympathetically.

“Of course. Take as long as you’d like. I- I’ll be waiting outside. If you want to call a family member then we have a phone on the desk here.” The Doctor said before walking from the room. The door shut with a loud noise.

He lifted the sheet

Dustin thought that his parents could be sleeping, his mother’s face was still as beautiful as it had been six hours ago when she had left to go to her party. He hadn’t gotten a babysitter because they lived in a small town and his mom trusted him. He moved closer to his mother.

He had to put his hands on the cool metal slab to steady himself. He reached down and moved the hair out of his mother’s closed eyes.

“Mommy?” He whispered. “Please don’t leave me alone.”

He felt bile in his throat and he willed it back down. His mother was gone. Forever. His mind seemed to be running at a million miles a minute. His dad had never been in the picture. It had only ever been the two of them. His mother didn’t have any other family.

 “I don’t w-w-want you to go.” He bit his lip and forced himself to keep calm. He didn’t want the doctor to hear him crying. His dad always said boys don’t cry. And he didn’t want his dad to think he was a little sissy.

“Noo.” He cried against his mother’s dead body and felt his emotions rage. He felt helpless. They were gone and he couldn’t do anything about it. He’d never get to feel her hugs again. Or hear her laugh at his jokes or wake up to the smell of her cooking bed. He sobbed on the ground for what seemed like days. Finally after an unseemly amount of time a short stout woman walked in.

 “Dustin? I’m Ms. Belfort. I’m here with social services. Can I talk to you?”

Dustin stayed quiet but sat up and wiped the tears off of his face.

The woman cleared her throat and fixed him with a tired look. She didn’t look very friendly to Dustin at all. “It’s been brought to my attention that your parents have no living relatives. I need to talk to you about where you’re going to stay from now on.”

“What are you talking about?” Dustin finally asked. He didn’t understand where he was going?

The woman looked at him with impatience. Dustin wondered why she had a job like this if she hated children.

“I meant where you’re going to stay more permanently. You will need a guardian.”

“I don’t know anyone who would take me in.” Dustin mumbled. “My didn’t have any family.”

The social worker didn’t seem to be pleased with his answer, she looked disappointed. “So you have nobody, did your parents even have any friends? You must have someone.”

“Just go away.” Dustin finally snapped, the woman was starting to piss him off. Why was she so rude? He didn’t even want to be here right now

“Dustin I’m sorry for your loss but we really need to talk about your future.”

His future? He didn’t have a future. He didn’t even understand what the hell she was talking about. His mom was gone. She didn’t even know who he was.

“There’s a nice family I have lined up that you can stay with. I was hoping you wouldn’t have to but that’s fine.”

Foster care? He wasn’t going into foster care. His mom had told him that only bad kids go into foster care. He hadn’t even done anything wrong. He didn’t have many friends but that wasn’t his fault. He was slowly getting more and more angry.

“I’m not a bad kid.” He said, voice dripping with anger. The Social worker’s eyes widened and she seemed to shake it off. He wasn’t loud but she could tell by his tone that he wasn’t going to go quietly. She tried to straighten herself up and looked down at the boy with her eyes hard.

“Dustin I’m afraid you don’t have any choice.” Dustin had begun to hate this woman. She was mean and didn’t seem to want to be nice to him. So he wasn’t going to be nice to her.

“Leave me alone. I’m not going anywhere with you.” Dustin said icily. “Get out!”

She didn’t make any move to leave and it was the last straw. Dustin felt like his head was going to explode with rage.

“Get the fuck out!” Dustin screamed. It was the worst word that he knew, his mom had said it once when a man had cut her off while driving. Sometimes the older kids at school would use words like that. His mom had told Dustin it was a very mean word. He knew that it was the right word to use. He looked around and found a bowl. He threw it as hard as he could at her. It hit the door beside her and she jumped. She rushed to the door and closed it in a huff. He felt much better after that.

It was along time before someone else came to the door and Dustin heard an argument.

 “I’m sorry but I’m the boy’s cousin.” The voice said sounded angry and Dustin frowned. It was unfamiliar. The door opened and a woman came in. She was very young, he thought that she might have even been a teenager. She smiled at him.

The woman took in the sight before her for a few seconds before turning to slam the door shut on the Social Worker who looked at him with rage, “Give us a minute.”

Silence filled the room. she just stared at Dustin, taking in the tears running down his face. The woman’s name was Anna.

Anna pulled off her coat, and threw it into a corner. She seemed to be able to take in the magnitude of the situation.

Without a word, Anna crossed the distance between them and before Dustin even knew what was happening, Anna’s hands were on him and he was being pulled gently away from his parents’ bodies and toward the her.

“C’mere buddy.” Anna said softly as she brought the little boy into her arms. He was hesitant at first. But he felt his emotions consume him.

Dustin scrunched his eyes shut and buried his face in the woman’s chest, bringing his own arms around her back and squeezing the unknown woman tight.

“It’s ok. It will be ok, don’t worry.” Anna mumbled and He started crying again.

“I’m sorry.” Dustin managed to get out at some point between sobs.

She gently began explaining that she was his cousin from Fort Wayne and she was getting Guardianship of him. Anna just let Dustin cry against him not trying to get him to stop but rubbing his back slowly.

“Whenever you want to leave we will.” Anna said into his hair. She stroked the fuzzy mop that was reminiscent of her own. He was a cute kid. She had lived with her Aunt Claudia for summers before Dustin was born and had held the boy as a baby. Then she had gone to live with her father and hadn’t seen either of them since. She had moved back to Indiana just that year to work and had been planning to come down and see her aunt. Then she got the news.

Dustin froze. He would never really see his mom again. He felt a tear drip down his face but he quietly said he wanted to go. Anna looked down at the tearful boy with concern.

“Are you sure?” Anna asked, sensing his hesitation. “There’s no rush. We can stay as long as you want.”

“No. I-I want to go. Please.” Dustin mumbled into Anna’s chest. She felt her heart swell.

“Ok.” Anna said. She gathered him into her arms and stood. He buried his head into her shoulder. He was Eleven years old and a big kid but he needed to be carried.

 “All right let’s get out of here.” Anna said and grabbed her coat before opening the door to leave, running straight into the social worker. She looked at the pair with annoyance.

“And just where do you think you’re going?” She asked, with a sneer on her face. Anna felt herself go cold. She wasn’t going to let this horrid woman have any satisfaction.

“Like I said before I’m taking the kid. I signed the papers and I’m leaving.” Anna’s grip around him tightened Dustin felt fear at the idea of the nice woman not being able to be with him.

“Ms. Henderson there’s a protocol to follow. And he should stay at a short term home for the next week or so-“ She stepped in front of them, trying to halt their escape.

“Well I’m here so we don’t need to do that.”

“I don’t really think you understand what you’re getting into.” The woman put her hands on her hips.

 “He’s just a kid and he need help.” Anna growled as she pushed passed her again and continued walking. A surprised expression crossed the woman’s face, as if she couldn’t quite believe Anna aggression.

“I’ll call security!” She threatened.

“Go ahead! I’m sure they’ll hate that the child’s legal guardian isn’t yielding to some crazy woman.” Anna yelled back, pushing the exit door open.

She put Dustin into the front seat of an old car, She then walked over and got into the drivers side. She gave him a small smile. She was going to do what needed to be done to make sure the kid got the life he deserved.

She thought of her kind aunt who was always able to spare an hour on the phone to talk about her life or what she wanted. She took a deep breath before she looked at the boy again. He was staring up at her with uncertain eyes.

_I’m going to make you proud Auntie. I promise._


End file.
